Ange Postecoglou has said that despite the poor results over the last few months, he sees a lot of positive signs with the team, insisting that things will come together quite quickly if certain gaps are filled.
Postecoglou’s methods are understandably being scrutinised by pundits and fans after Tottenham’s recent poor run of results, with some wondering whether the Premier League is a step too far for the Australian.
However, this is certainly not the first time that the 58-year-old has had to deal with doubters. In fact, his first season at Yokohama Marinos was quite bleak, with the club flirting with relegation and eventually finishing in 12th place.
The club surprised everyone by going on to win the J League title for the first time in 14 years in the subsequent season.
Postecoglou admitted that even after his first season at Yokohama he was confident that the club were on the right path, just as he is now with Spurs.
When asked about his experience in Japan, Postecoglou told Football.London: “It’s fair to say the scrutiny there wasn’t as intense even though we were on the fringes of relegation, even though I was pretty confident we would be OK. It required a bit of a leap of faith that I was saying ‘don’t worry, we’ll be good next year’. It’s not like we were fourth or fifth or sixth, we were flirting with relegation that year.
“I still saw signs in that time, we were the second highest scorers in the league, we conceded a lot of goals that year for sure… but I just thought if we make the right changes in the off-season, I could see the players had bought into it 100 per cent.
“The staff had bought into it, it was just a matter of making the right moves the following year and I thought we’re going to make some major ground. Now, we ended up winning it the following year.
“Through that time, whether it’s outward scrutiny or you kind of question, OK, and I’m not oblivious to seeing that the results are not great, but I’ve always been good at looking below and seeing is there the stuff there that I need to see for us to continue to grow.
“Particularly at that time I really felt strongly that the following year we would be a force, absolutely. I didn’t know we’d win it, obviously, because to come from where we did to win it was pretty extraordinary. I was confident we would make some major inroads.”
Postecoglou expects big things from Spurs next season
Postecoglou insisted that he has a similar feeling to the one he had after his first season at Yokohama, insisting that things will come together quite quickly at Spurs if they fix a few glaring holes in the side.
The Tottenham head coach continued: “I feel the same way now. The underlying stuff that I look for is there. Do we have gaps? Absolutely. Is it surprising? No. But that’s hard to outwardly explain to people rightly or wrongly who are just looking at the results and saying, well, with Yokohama, we finished 15th or 16th, how are you going to win the league the following year?
“I would have seemed like I was even crazier than I do now, but I believe at that time we were in good shape and I believe at this time that we’re in good shape.”
When asked if the experience in Japan strengthened his belief in his approach, Postecoglou said: “Yeah but the confidence only comes if I see things that are reflective of what I see below the surface. I do, I think there’s a lot of encouragement there for us in terms of where we’re heading as a team. I really believe that.
“But some of that won’t come to the surface until we fill certain gaps. It will stay below the surface and we’re going to have some fluctuations and volatility in our growth. As we continue to fill those gaps, when it does come together, it will come together really quickly. That’s what I believe.”
Spurs Web Opinion
Postecoglou seems to be of the belief that the team would improve exponentially if they could upgrade in two or three positions across the pitch.
One can understand why he believes that even in our recent defeats against the likes of Arsenal and Liverpool, there were some very positive signs.
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